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Auckland City Mission has revisited its 2010 and 2011 ‘Become Someone’s Angel’ campaign with a new 30-second TVC that aims to pull at the heartstrings of Aucklanders over the month of December.

Rather than following the previous trend of including a depressing case study, this year’s commercial has instead opted for a subtle approach that shows the difference that a donation can make to people who are closer than you think.

Auckland City Mission CEO Diane Robertson says, “We like to work closely with the creatives working on our projects to find new and interesting ways to appeal to the public. This campaign really tries to show that hard times can fall on anyone.”

Liz Garneau, the producer on the project, says the TVC, which was a collaborative effort between several agencies, was filmed in one night on Franklin Road, Auckland’s iconic Christmas lights street.

“We are very happy with what we have achieved on a shoestring [budget], and it’s largely due to the generosity of our exceptional crew and industry suppliers, who also know how to help a brother or sister out,” she says.

At the end of the video, viewers are encouraged to visit a specially made website where they can donate money to the cause. And those that make the biggest donations will feature on an angel leader board, which is categorised into individuals, schools and businesses.

Robertson explains that Auckland City Mission has established relationships with various schools and businesses over the years on campaigns such as Santa’s Helper and Orange Day, and this makes it easier to get them involved in new campaigns.

To spread further awareness, Auckland City Mission also commissioned the production of series of posters that will feature around the city over the next few weeks.

The TVC will air on 1 December and the campaign will run through the holiday season until the middle of January, with the main outdoor collection push occurring on 6 December, which has been dubbed the inaugural Angel Day.

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On Monday, Whittaker’s launched its latest novelty chocolate-lolly mash up with a chocolatey answer to retro bakesale treat coconut ice. The Coconut Ice Surprise chocolate has a twist though, 20c from each block goes to Plunket – a charity which New Zealanders agree is a worthy cause. However, to relate the chocolate to the charity, Whittaker's has built the campaign around baby gender reveal parties, causing a backlash from the public who argue gender norms have expanded beyond blue for boys and pink for girls.

Genius From Elsewhere

1

With over 10,000 fires occuring in South Korea residential homes every year, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance has created a flower vase that doubles as a throwable fire extinguisher. The hope is it will raise awareness to the public safety issue of home fire safety.

2

Advertisers have stopped buying ads on YouTube after their ads appeared on children's videos where pedophiles had infiltrated the comment section.The New York Times investigates the comments.

3

The internet has been up in arms about a supposed 'Anti-LGBT' emoji, featuring a rainbow flag alongside the "no" symbol. However, according to Time, the emoji causing offence is actually "an unfortunate implementation of the standards that govern how text is displayed on our device".

4

This year, Super Bowl audiences were treated to a 45-second video of Andy Warhol eating a Burger King Whopper. It was certainly a campaign unlike any before, but did it work? Adweek takes a look.

5

As of 1 March, Queenslanders will be able to include one of five emojis alongside their licence places. The options—the laughing-crying face, the winking face, the sunglasses face, the heart-eyed face, or the classic smiley face—are courtesy of Personalised Plates Queensland.

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